Travel Muse Magazine

Did you know that there are plenty of ways to get into museums in Lisbon and the surrounding local areas for free? Yup, and most of them don’t involve having to buy the Lisboa Card either. The Lisboa Card can potentially be a good deal, depending how you stack your trip and what all you want to do. But we found it was too expensive for what you get (and what you can practically fit into 24 hours)… especially being you can instead buy an all day metro ticket for about €7 per day per person and there’s lots of other things you can do for free or discounted when you buy the tickets at the door, especially for families and people under 25. And we’re not talking places you don’t want to go. These are actual good places! Here’s where, when and how to go on the cheap…

Calouste Gulbenkian Museum & CAM (Centro de Arte Moderna)

Sundays 2pm & later equal completely free entry for anyone and everyone at both the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and Centro de Arte Moderna (aka the CAM). These museums are open until 6pm, so that gives you four beautiful free hours here. NOTE: Right now the Gulbenkian is closed for renovations (set to reopen in July 2026) but the CAM is open. You can also download the museum’s app and get a free audio guide tour!

Also free nearby, the lovely Gulbenkian Gardens. They’re free everyday for all.

Casa Dos Bicos

The Casa Dos Bicos houses two different museum spaces. The first floor one explores ancient Roman ruins in a lovely air conditioned space with modern artistic explanations of the history here. And this one is completely free for everyone! We really enjoyed learning about the fish processing system that made a popular product in Roman times. Upstairs, is the famed José Saramago Foundation, dedicated to the writer’s work and contains the “personal library of the Nobel Prize-winner for Literature in 1998.” That one costs €4 for adults, €2 for students (with ID), and free for those under 12 and over 65. They also have a family ticket that puts your max at €8 for two adults and however many kids and student family members.

Roman Teatro

Like Casa Dos Bicos there are two different entry points with different costs for the Roman Teatro. First, you can explore the ancient ruins archeological site “dating from the 1st century AD,” where they’ve excavated a theatre and added some cool artistic renderings to compliment the space so you can visualize how grand the space used to be. According to the Lisbon Museum’s website, it is “one of the most important monuments of the ancient Roman city of Felicitas Iulia Olisipo” (which was the ancient name for Lisboa). This is all free. It’s in an open air covered area that you can just walk right up and enjoy. You can also cross the street and look into more excavation sites.

The paid part (aka the Roman Teatro Museum) is indoors, where you’ll find, “archaeological exhibits that pre-date the monument, and others that were found on top of it, covering a long historical period from the 4th century BCE to the 17th century CE.” The paid section also gives you more info about the ruins and history. And it’s not expensive: €3 for adults, €1.50 for people 13 to 25. It’s free for anyone up to 12 and anyone with the Lisboa card.

Museu do Dinheiro

The Money Museum is completely free for everyone every time it is open. Just like it sounds, this is a place where you can learn all about money – Portuguese and around the world. And you can even make your own money 😉 Check out what they call their highlights here. This one is right in the historic center behind the Praça do Comércio, so if you’re over there, check it out.

Azulejos Museum

The National Tile Museum was one of my favorite museums in Lisbon. It’s so unique and brought a new appreciation to the artistry and craftsmanship of the art I was enjoying on every building already. It’s free here with the Lisboa Card, so if you get that, go here to get maximum value. But if you’re not getting that card, there’s other ways to get in for less than the regular €10 adult admission. We did the “Family Ticket” which gives everyone in the family 50% off the total purchase, you have to just be one adult and one minor in your group to get this deal (ie, instead of us paying €50 to get in, it cost us €25 total for all five in my family (we had 2 adults, 2 minors and one 19 year old). Anyone 65 and up is €5. Anyone between 13-24 is €5. Kids under 12 are always free! There’s also a really lovely atrium garden restaurant here that is free to enter too. They had great sandwiches and it was very relaxing, not busy and not crowded!

Lisbon Cathedral

Also known as the Sé de Lisboa aka Cathedral of Saint Mary Major, you can enter and pray for free any time it is open and you can attend religious services for free. But if you want to go on the nave guided tour and enter the cloister or the treasury sections that are the museum spaces (where you learn more about the space), you have to pay for a ticket, which runs €7 for anyone 13 and up, €5 for those 7-12, and free for young kiddos 6 and under.

Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

If you like old art with mostly religious undertones, you’ll wanna check out the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga. It’s free for people with the Lisboa Card. But if you don’t want to buy that you can get a good deal for families of half-off, just like at the azulejos museum. Regular entry is €7.50 for adults. Kids under 12 are free. People 13-24 and 65+ are just €3.75.

Museu do Fado

The Fado Museum, which celebrates Portugal’s favorite music, is free for Lisboa card holders and for kids up to 12. People 13-25 are €2.50 and those 65+ are €4.

You can see all of the current things included with free admission if you have the Lisboa Card here. If you buy the card in advance on their website you can save 5%, but you still have to go into one of the tourist shop locations to pick it up. Read details on the official website. Note: there are some scammer websites out there for this so make sure to buy directly from the Lisbon tourism office!

Other free museums & such:

• Rua dos Correeiros Archaeological Nucleus (Lisbon)
• Joao de Deus Museum (Lisbon)
• Anjos Teixeira Museum (Sintra)
• Sintra Natural History Museum (Sintra)
• Archaeological Museum of S. Miguel de Odrinhas (Sintra)
• Sintra Museum of Arts (Sintra)
• Duarte Pinto Coelho House (Cascais)
  • On a related note: All of the Cascais museums are free for anyone under 18 years old. They also have a 25% discount off the total for families (up to 7 people).
• Fortress of Santiago (Sesimbra)
• Lighthouse of Cabo Espichel (Sesimbra)
• Sesimbra Castle (Sesimbra)

There used to be a lot more free places to visit (and you may even see websites that mention more), but just as ticket prices go up, fewer and fewer things in Lisbon are gratis. Be sure to check the places websites for the latest info. Even then, I noticed it is sometimes posted higher prices than their websites say.

If you know of other ways/times/places to get free museum entry, let us know by leaving a comment below. Thanks!!